I'd like to be better about posting regularly to let you all know what I'm up to. Things finally seem to be moving on both the writer and editor fronts. So here are the details of my latest breaking news.
-I got a new job! I am finally breaking free from the administrative support world and transitioning into editing as my day job. I have accepted a position at an institute that develops all assessment tests for the state of Kansas. I'll be editing said tests at each phase, from developmental to and line edits - as well as potentially doing some writing for websites or other brochure type content as needed. This is a huge breakthrough. I am going to be a professional editor.
-My boyfriend Jack Campbell, Jr. and I attended our annual sci-fi and fantasy convention, ConQuesT, over Memorial Day weekend this year. It is always filled with frenetic energy of so many writers, editors, artists, and fans that it always charges my creative batteries. Jack and I participated in the Story in a Bag contest again, and we both brought home winner certificates. He won the professional horror category, and I won the amateur horror category. Luckily I still fall into the amateur category, because I'd hate to go up against him. This was our last con for fun. Next year, we work. We're both going to volunteer to moderate panels, and we'll have to do some networking.
-I ended up editing two short stories for my author friend Jason Arnett. He published one called Prospects on Amazon (which you can find here) and Smashwords (which you can find here). He does a fantastic job writing within the dying genre of hard sci-fi, so if you like the old genre, check him out. I'm hoping his second short will go up for sale soon.
-Speaking of short stories, if you haven't checked them out yet, I've edited two short stories for my author friend R.L. Naquin. They are part of her Monster Haven world, and they are delicious little snippets that will either tide you over between books or suck you into the world. You can find the holiday-themed Hidden Holidays here (Amazon or Smashwords) and her more recent ode to the closet monster Maurice What Zoey Doesn't Know here (Amazon or Smashwords). She and I are working on putting together a collection of several of her short stories, and hopefully that will come out later this year. I'll let you know more about details once we nail things down.
-In other writing news, Jack and I have officially registered for a writing retreat for September 2015. Four days in lovely Northern California at the Haunted Mansion Writing Retreat. All of our food and drinks (including unlimited alcohol) will be provided, and our only responsibilities will be to write and also blog about any paranormal activity we experience. Jack talks a bit more about the trip, so head on over to his blog post Sound the Retreat! for details.
-Last, but certainly not least, story ideas are putting pressure on my brain, begging to be written again. I thought the voices had dried up, but now I feel like I'm riding the crest of a wave about to break. I am preparing to participate in the July run of Camp Nanowrimo with my amazing writing group. I haven't settled on which story yet, but I have settled on at least attempting something in the range of 30,000 words in a month. Right now I just want to tell ALL THE STORIES. I know I can't work on all of them at once, but eventually I'll decide on one. The win of Story in a Bag bolstered my waning confidence in my ability to write, so here's hoping I get into the swing of things again
Showing posts with label ConQuest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ConQuest. Show all posts
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Monday, May 20, 2013
Spring Update
It's finally spring in Kansas (which means there are some nice days and some days that feel like summer). Amazingly, this seems to have cured most of my ailments.
I've been suffering from one illness or ailment after another for the last five months, everything from colds to flu to bronchitis to sinus infections to dental and mouth surgeries. I've been to the doctor and the dentist and I've been on inhalers and steroids and antibiotics and my own array of herbal supplements. It figures what finally cured me was just time and a change in the weather.
The other ailment the weather seems to be slowly curing is writer's block. I'm starting to feel creative energies flowing again, and I actually have an idea or two percolating. I think it helps that my head isn't as full of snot or pain and that my seasonal depression is fading.
At any rate, I haven't started actually writing yet, but I have written a few wine blogs (you can check them out at Red Wine Reminiscence), and now I'm writing a blog here. I've poked around some short story markets on Duotrope. I finally read my NaNo novel from last year, and decided it wasn't the pile of trash I originally thought it was. It's a start. A small start, but it's something.
This weekend is ConQuest, and the boyfriend and I are going all three days. I will write a story for Story in a Bag - the contest I won last year (well, three way tied for first). I will listen to writers and publishers and editors and artists talk. I will write down a thousand book recommendations. And I will relax with my man on his birthday weekend. I've taken several days off work, so I am going to rest, relax, read, and hopefully write.
The third course in my editing certificate starts tomorrow. I earned a B+ in both the first and the second courses, have learned a ton, and am looking forward to the next class. Just two left until I am done with the sequence. I just finished copyediting a friend's manuscript (my first paid gig).
I am making slow and steady progress towards my goals again. The post-NaNo blues took me down hard this year, and I wandered aimlessly for a long time. But I'm taking it back now. I'm ready to reclaim my writer title. I know I never really lose it, but sometimes I put it away for awhile. During those times, I always worry I'll never get it back out, but as all of my writing friends remind me, it will always find me again, even if I can't find it.
I've been suffering from one illness or ailment after another for the last five months, everything from colds to flu to bronchitis to sinus infections to dental and mouth surgeries. I've been to the doctor and the dentist and I've been on inhalers and steroids and antibiotics and my own array of herbal supplements. It figures what finally cured me was just time and a change in the weather.
The other ailment the weather seems to be slowly curing is writer's block. I'm starting to feel creative energies flowing again, and I actually have an idea or two percolating. I think it helps that my head isn't as full of snot or pain and that my seasonal depression is fading.
At any rate, I haven't started actually writing yet, but I have written a few wine blogs (you can check them out at Red Wine Reminiscence), and now I'm writing a blog here. I've poked around some short story markets on Duotrope. I finally read my NaNo novel from last year, and decided it wasn't the pile of trash I originally thought it was. It's a start. A small start, but it's something.
This weekend is ConQuest, and the boyfriend and I are going all three days. I will write a story for Story in a Bag - the contest I won last year (well, three way tied for first). I will listen to writers and publishers and editors and artists talk. I will write down a thousand book recommendations. And I will relax with my man on his birthday weekend. I've taken several days off work, so I am going to rest, relax, read, and hopefully write.
The third course in my editing certificate starts tomorrow. I earned a B+ in both the first and the second courses, have learned a ton, and am looking forward to the next class. Just two left until I am done with the sequence. I just finished copyediting a friend's manuscript (my first paid gig).
I am making slow and steady progress towards my goals again. The post-NaNo blues took me down hard this year, and I wandered aimlessly for a long time. But I'm taking it back now. I'm ready to reclaim my writer title. I know I never really lose it, but sometimes I put it away for awhile. During those times, I always worry I'll never get it back out, but as all of my writing friends remind me, it will always find me again, even if I can't find it.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
ConQuest 43
Memorial Day Weekend always goes hand in hand with the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society (KaCSFFS) annual convention: ConQuestT. I didn't get to go last year, but this year I had someone to go with, and to add to the fun, it was also his birthday weekend.
Overall, it was a fun, long, sobering, exhausting, and informative weekend filled with not great food, sickening elevator rides, uncomfortable chairs, a minor panic attack in a parking garage, an obnoxious kids concert that caused detours both on foot and in vehicles. We had a fabulous, luxurious hotel room, I met an adorable (cadaver) dog, I received lots of new book recommendations, and came home with a spark of motivation for writing and a certificate of excellence for winning a writing contest.
Between Friday and Sunday, I went to over a dozen panels led by writers, editors, publishers, game designers, and artists. Some were informative, some were hilarious, and some were boring and uncomfortable. I always feel equally motivated and discouraged after listening to published writers and small press editors talk. I realize that I share my dream of being a writer with thousands of other writers, and that even getting something published doesn't mean I'll get to quit my day job. Maybe ever. And how lucky I would be to get a break at all and make a little extra money.
But it also gets me excited to try.
Each year they do a Story-in-a-Bag contest, where you are given five index cards from different categories (plot, character, object, setting, first line) and you have an hour to craft a story using all of the elements. I burned through my story and thought it was crap when I was done, but I threw on a clever last line and decided I might as well submit it. I took the time to write it, after all, so what did I have to lose?
Apparently nothing, because I won in the amateur fantasy category!
Well, it was a three way tie. But still. I'm claiming it as a victory.
So my confidence in my writing is restored, I'm starting to take my search for short story markets more seriously, and I'm participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this month.
Overall, it was a great getaway birthday weekend with Jack. The experience just reaffirmed my belief that I have found the perfect guy for me. The Con was fun, but the time spent with him made everything else icing on the cake.
Although I made him birthday muffins, not birthday cake.
Overall, it was a fun, long, sobering, exhausting, and informative weekend filled with not great food, sickening elevator rides, uncomfortable chairs, a minor panic attack in a parking garage, an obnoxious kids concert that caused detours both on foot and in vehicles. We had a fabulous, luxurious hotel room, I met an adorable (cadaver) dog, I received lots of new book recommendations, and came home with a spark of motivation for writing and a certificate of excellence for winning a writing contest.
Between Friday and Sunday, I went to over a dozen panels led by writers, editors, publishers, game designers, and artists. Some were informative, some were hilarious, and some were boring and uncomfortable. I always feel equally motivated and discouraged after listening to published writers and small press editors talk. I realize that I share my dream of being a writer with thousands of other writers, and that even getting something published doesn't mean I'll get to quit my day job. Maybe ever. And how lucky I would be to get a break at all and make a little extra money.
But it also gets me excited to try.
Each year they do a Story-in-a-Bag contest, where you are given five index cards from different categories (plot, character, object, setting, first line) and you have an hour to craft a story using all of the elements. I burned through my story and thought it was crap when I was done, but I threw on a clever last line and decided I might as well submit it. I took the time to write it, after all, so what did I have to lose?
Apparently nothing, because I won in the amateur fantasy category!
Well, it was a three way tie. But still. I'm claiming it as a victory.
So my confidence in my writing is restored, I'm starting to take my search for short story markets more seriously, and I'm participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this month.
Overall, it was a great getaway birthday weekend with Jack. The experience just reaffirmed my belief that I have found the perfect guy for me. The Con was fun, but the time spent with him made everything else icing on the cake.
Although I made him birthday muffins, not birthday cake.
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